SVG effects for Inkscape as a companion for Xara

[ivan louette]

Some goldpainting effects ...

enjoy,

ivan

[ivan louette]

It's Fall...

Some colorizable leaves.

Enjoy

ivan

[salaam]

Nice gold Ivan, it looks very expensive.

[ivan louette]

Nice gold Ivan, it looks very expensive.

Not so much ! It's a free effect !

kindly,
ivan

[ivan louette]

Some more cracked textures evocating brick and stone walls, wallnuts, carrots, lukums, wasp nests...

All are settings from the same one derivated from one of the leaves filters above.

enjoy !
ivan

[ivan louette]

Extrapolated from the previous ones, these ones can be directly applied to bitmaps to give them painterly effects.

enjoy,
ivan

[handrawn]

now why did I just know that was the direction you'd be heading in Ivan..

effective - I like

[ivan louette]

now why did I just know that was the direction you'd be heading in Ivan..

effective - I like

And so simple ! Import a png into the file in Inkscape and keep it selected, open the Object/Filter Effect dialog, check the filter name in the list, look at the result and export it to png to open it again and play with it in XTreme.

And if you change settings in the Blend Primitive in Inkscape you can obtain more dramatic effects like this.

kindly,
ivan

[mg.architect]

Hi Ivan,
Newbie here...May I ask how you apply a svg file to a Xara drawing or photo opened in Xara? The effects are interesting but I'm lost after downloading and unzipping them.

Can you provide instruction geared to a newbie?

Thanks,

mg

[ivan louette]

Hi Ivan,
Newbie here...May I ask how you apply a svg file to a Xara drawing or photo opened in Xara? The effects are interesting but I'm lost after downloading and unzipping them.

Can you provide instruction geared to a newbie?

Thanks,

mg

EDITED WITH NEW INTERESTING INFOS ABOUT INSTALLING AND LINKING PNG EXPORTED FROM XARA !

The filters are applied in Inkscape which is a free Open Source vector program. As indicated in this thread title I use it as a companion tool for Xara, importing and exporting from one to the other program.

But don't be afraid ! That's not so complicated.

1° Unzip a Win32 Inkscape Snapshot in its own directory at any place on your PC and create a shortcut to it. Nothing more to do ! They are available here : http://inkscape.modevia.com/win32/?M=D . The last snapshot which works well for me is this one : http://inkscape.modevia.com/win32/In...-0810191927.7z . It's compressed with 7z, a free zip program.

Be aware that these snapshots are beta programs and they have bugs. If you want you may report them here : https://bugs.launchpad.net/inkscape


2° Exporting from Xara

You have two possibilities :

- if your Xara drawing has no Xara filter, gradient, fractal fill, transparency effect, blur or shadow applied and is only pure vector, you can export it as SVG.

- if your drawing contains some effects or bitmaps, the best is exporting it as a PNG bitmap. If there are transparency effects and you don't want to include background, the best is exporting to 32 bits true color + alpha PNG, otherwise it's perfect to export as a 256 colors PNG

3° Importing in Inkscape

- Open in Inkscape snapshot the file which contains the filters (the zipped one at the bottom of my posts).

- If your Xara exported file is a svg vector, open it as a new file. That will open a second instance of Inkscape. Go back to the document with filters, copy the object with the filter you want and paste it anywhere in your SVG file imported from Xara.

- If your file is a PNG bitmap, create a new blank file, import this bitmap inside and paste the same way the shape containing effects in the same document.

INTERESTINGLY BY DEFAULT INKSCAPE DOESN'T EMBED THE BITMAP AND THUS IF YOU CHANGE IT IN XARA AND EXPORT IT AGAIN, IT'S AUTOMATICALLY ACTUALISED IN INKSCAPE ! But afterwards you may embed it if you want : only go to the Menu and do Effect/Image/Embed all images.

4° Applying filters

- select the vector or bitmap object you want apply the filter onto.

- go to the menu Object/Filter Effects. That opens a new dialog window where you see on top left the filter name(s). Check the little box and voilà !

5° Modifying filters settings

Then begins the most fascinating step... Sometimes hazardous of course, but at the moment my only little problem is sometimes beeing forced to kill Inkscape process when it stop to respond. But be patient, sometimes it needs some seconds. Inkscape isn't as fast as Xara is !

- to change the settings, click on one of the "primitives" on top right of the filters dialog window. The settings input boxes and sliders will change at the bottom of the windows ; that's where you can change anything.

It's discussed through Inkscape programmers community how to improve filters UI in the future to make it simpler without sacrifying it's powerfull capabilities.

6° Exporting from Inkscape to Xara

The best is exporting your transformed object as a PNG bitmap (at 300 DPI that's perfect) and importing it in Xara. Then you will benefit of all Xara compositing capabilities to manipulate your semi-transparent PNG.

7° Modifying filters and creating new ones

In fact at first I proceeded like a blind man and many many functions remains mysterious for me. I am an intuitive person and I must do many experiments before understanding what I do. At this early stage I couldn't write tutorials.

But you could find excellent online docs here : http://fedev.blogspot.com/search/lab...cts%20Tutorial and here : http://tavmjong.free.fr/INKSCAPE/MAN...l/Filters.html

I hope that can help those ones who would try...

kindly,
ivan